


Genetic Insomnia

by orphan_account



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, all of the fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 15:39:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1863201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets about Kieren and/or Jem having trouble sleeping and what they get up to in the night when they do. Will post more as they come to mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Old Comforts

Jem wakes with a start, hand reaching for her gun before her head lifts off the pillow, before she realises it’s happened again.

Kieren is sitting half on her bed, hand outstretched toward her shoulder still, head tilted down to hide his natural eyes until she wakes up a bit. She sits up and tries to calm her breathing, staring at his hand as it rests back in his lap.

“How long’d I make it?” Jem asks, dreading the answer.

Kieren sighs. “Well, it’s two… thirty-something. Took a bit to wake you up. Longer than me, anyway.”

“Well, you’re all…” Jem gestures to his face, suggesting Kieren has responded to lack of sleep much better than he would have if he were alive. Neither of them had been as bad before the rising as they are now, but long nights spent watching tv together on mute so their parents wouldn’t find out only for them both to feel absolutely hellish for the day support her argument.

Jem and Kieren used to figure it was genetic. Their parents sleep like logs, but their Grandfather- on Mum’s side- had apparently had trouble sleeping through the night too.

Now at least they both have an excuse.

“Yeah.” Kieren finally looks at her, and other than a quick stutter of her heart she manages to keep herself together. “At least you don’t have school tomorrow.”

“Yep.” Jem nods, smiling thinly.

There’s a bit of an awkward silence, and then Kieren speaks up again. “Do you want to talk about-”

“Nope.”

And then the awkward silence is back.

Jem breaks it this time. “Y’remember when we used to make blankets forts? When we were real little. I’d have some nightmare an you’d come to wake me up and ‘since I couldn’t sleep afterwards you’d tell me we could make a fort, and I’d be safe to sleep in there. Except we never actually got around to sleeping after that.”

“Yeah I remember that.” A smile spreads on Kieren’s face, and he looks at her consideringly. “Simon’s using my bed..”

“But we can use the spare sheets in the linen closet, c’mon.” Jem finishes, already climbing out of bed and grabbing her blankets while Kieren starts yanking at her top sheet.

-

It turns out building a quality constructed blanket fort is like riding a bicycle. It helps that their parents haven’t changed the living room furniture around in ten years, rising or no rising. Their usual setup is more cramped now, but that’s fine. They jam up close together and snicker to themselves, trying to keep quiet.

“Okay, so this sounded like a better idea when I first thought of it.” Jem says half into Kieren’s knee, which has been jammed up next to her face somehow, half laughing her words out.

“Are you kidding? This is fantastic. I can smell your weird sleep-sweat stink perfectly from here. I’m in heaven.” Kieren’s face has in fact found itself shoved under her armpit.

“Oi!” Jem shoves him, and there’s a bit of good-natured wrestling before the supporting broom on the left starts to wobble dangerously and they still, now in a slightly more comfortable position.

It’s quiet again, but more comfortable this time. Jem doesn’t know how long they sit there, with nothing but their torches lighting the inside of the fort up, before she speaks.

“It was Lisa again.”

Kieren blinks, and then lets out a commiseratory sigh. “Yeah?”

Jem nods, and starts in on telling him about it.

-

It’s long since daylight when they hear their parents coming downstairs and they both go quiet and still, eyeing each other guiltily until…

“What on _earth_?”

Which sets them both off giggling.

“Are you both in there? How could you possibly fit?” Jem see’s her Mum’s shadow moving across the blanket roof. “I thought you grew out of this when Jem was eleven.”

“Well would you look at that.” Dad sounds much more charmed by this than Mum does.

They both struggle to hold back their snickering but then there’s the sound of someone else coming downstairs and Kieren just looks a bit panicked, like he’s just realized this isn’t the most respectable thing for his boyfriend to walk in on.

Jem is actually having a lot more trouble not laughing at the sight of the look on his face.

The sound on the stairs stops, and everyone’s quiet for awhile, and then there’s just a groggy “What.” before Jem can’t take it anymore and starts laughing in full.

“Kieren and Jem thought it would be clever for them to make a blanket fort in the middle of the night.” Their Mum explains.

“Oh.” Simon responds, and then… “Does this happen a lot?”

Which sends Kieren off with her, and they both end up laughing so hard that when they topple the blanket fort entirely their mother’s expression is fond rather than annoyed.


	2. Like Ice

When Simon wakes up, Kieren is gone.

This used to worry him, but he figured out that Kieren had trouble sleeping for more than fours hours at a time months ago, back in winter. Sometimes Kieren will wait for him to wake up, and it’s a great feeling when he does, but Simon doesn’t expect him to sit up for hours watching Simon sleep every night.

He gets up and can hear the low hum of the fan going as he heads downstairs. It’s early, so that’s probably Jem retreating downstairs after having just as much trouble sleeping as her brother. He and Kieren haven’t been bothered by the unusual heatwave blowing through Roarton, but it’s apparently been pretty trying on the living members of the Walker household.

But when he finally gets down there the first thing he sees is Jem leaning heavily against Kieren on the couch and Kieren, as soon as he notices Simon has woken up, pressing his finger to his lips in a shooshing gesture.

Simon steps closer, silent, and Jem is clearly unconscious, still in her sleep clothes of a tank-top and a pair of men’s boxers. Her arms are wrapped around Kieren’s waist and her head is on his shoulder, one of Kieren’s arms wrapped around her in turn. Kieren is in a t-shirt and shorts, which was an article of clothing Simon had not previously been sure Kieren owned. He holds his free arm out to Simon, whispering. “Touch my hand.”

Which is a strange request, but Simon indulges him, taking Kieren’s fingers in his and-

“Jesus _Christ_.” Simon isn’t bothered by changes in temperature, but he can feel them, and Kieren is freezing cold.

“Shh,” Kieren glares at him and nods down at Jem, then whispers again. Simon has only just noticed that Kieren’s hair is wet. “She’s been sleeping worse than usual, in the heat. So I… sort of took a bath in ice water.”

Simon stares. And blinks. And closes his eyes. “ _Kieren._ ”

“What? It was my idea, didn’t hurt me any.” Kieren shrugs with his unoccupied shoulder. “And she’s _sleeping._ ”

Which yes, she is, and Simon supposes Kieren doesn’t look any worse for wear.

“You going to stay there, then?”

“Until she wakes up. Or Mum and Dad come down and _wake_ her up.”

Simon nods. “Okay,” and then grabs a book he’d been reading off the arm of a chair. He shouldn’t have left that there, actually, but it’s useful enough now. Kieren and Jem have pretty much taken up the couch, so Simon situates himself on the floor between Kieren’s legs- which are also freezing, good god- and starts to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty sure British weather isn't half so bad as all this but I am in Phoenix and _dying_ so please allow me my escapism.


	3. Cold Comfort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the slightly increased humidity means my swamp cooler's not working terribly well and I've not been stoked about it so here have a precursor to the previous chapter in which Kieren is one big cool side of the pillow.

Kieren is almost always, without fail, the first one up out of him and Jem.

He doesn’t know why, it’s not like their respective nightmares have been set up on some kind of timer, but that’s just how it is. Kieren wakes up, wanders around for awhile, eventually Jem has a nightmare and he helps her get out of it.

He doesn’t mind. Kieren honestly can’t stand the idea of her waking up alone.

So when he steps groggily into the living room and sees Jem already up and laying bonelessly on the couch, the television on, muted and with captions, Kieren figures there’s something wrong.

“Jem?” Kieren leans over the back of the couch to get a better look at her. “You’re up?”

Jem nods and sits up, and blinks groggily at him, the only noise in the room the fan that she’s got pulled as close to the couch as she can. “I never got to sleep. You’re lucky you can’t feel it, Kier, it is _so hot._ ”

“I can feel it. It just isn’t a problem unless I’m burned or frozen solid or something.” Kieren sighed, running a hand through his hair. Jem really needed to get in at least her standard four hours, and sleeping wasn’t going to get any easier once the sun came out.

Jem looked wistful. “I’d like to be frozen solid right about now.”

“If it’d kill me it’d definitely kill you, Jem.”

“You saying I’m more fragile than you, Kieren? Because I could take you here and now, easy. Except for the, y’know. Inevitable heat stroke and all.” Jem smiled, trying to work up a bit of good humor.

“Yeah, I’m sure you could. Besides that.” Kieren nods, but he’s actually beginning to formulate the makings of an idea. He straightens up and strides into the kitchen.

He can hear a faint ‘where are you going?’ from Jem, but she has very little motivation to get up. Kieren grabs a glass first, filling it up with water and then opening the freezer to grab the bin full of ice for the ice machine, and then walks back into the living room to set the glass on the coffee table.

“Drink that.” He instructs. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Jem eyes the ice bin a bit funny. “What’re you gonna do with that, Kier?” But he’s already halfway up the staircase.

Kieren dumps the bin in the bath, plugs it up and turns the water on, then heads as quiet as he can back into his room to fetch some clothes. He also, after a moment’s thought, quits deluding himself that Jem won’t eventually wander up to the bathroom before he’s done and digs around for his swim trunks. Manages to get in and out, search around in the dark, and avoid waking Simon. He’s a little bit pleased with himself.

Then he’s back into the bathroom, changing into his trunks and waiting the tub to fill. Kieren’s just stopped the spout and gotten ready to step in when Jem appeared, leaning in the doorframe and squinting into the brightly lit bathroom.

“No, seriously, what are you doing?” Jem’s staring in confusion at the bathtub, and Kieren makes a point of stepping in and sinking down before answering.

“I’m taking a bath in ice water.” He says, easy as you please, trying to play it off as a perfectly normal thing for a person to be doing.

Which is why it takes her a moment to actually do anything, but then she’s rushing into the bathroom and poking a finger into the tub.

“Jesus _Christ_ , Kier. That is _freezing_ , are you sure this is alright?” She keeps poking her finger into the cold water and jerking it out.

Kieren is exactly as unaffected by the water as he expected to be, which is good, because otherwise this would have been a very stupid thing to do. “Yeah, no, I’m fine. So long as it’s above freezing, see?”

Kieren lifts a hand that’s been under the bath and wiggles his fingers demonstivelly. He isn’t entirely sure what it’s proving, besides ‘I didn’t immediately freeze solid’? But it seems like the thing to do.

“Right, then...” Jem pauses, blinks a few times. “Follow-up question: _Why_ exactly are you doing this?”

“Well I figured if I stayed in here long enough I’d be cold straight through. And then you could just use me as a cold thing to lay on.” Kieren’s smiles in an attempt to seem charming and tries to keep it up through the pure onslaught that is Jem’s immediate eye-roll.

“It ever occur to you to ask me about that first, Kier?”

“Uh, it did, but I figured if I already got myself cold you’d be less likely to say no. If you did say no anyway, all I’ve done is waste a bit of time.” He shrugs. “Except I’ll be able to prod people all day and make them jump. So it’s a win-win, really.”

Jem considers. “Yeah, okay, you have to let me be in the room when you do it to Dad, though."

“That’s fair.” Kieren nods and holds out a hand for her to shake. She complies, letting out a laugh when his freezing, wet hand closes around her own.

“Wow, okay.” She pumps it once and then takes her hand back. “How long is this going to take, d’you think?”

Kieren shrugs. “Not too long, probably.”

-

About twenty minutes later Kieren has been dubbed ‘cool enough’ and Jem leaves while he towels himself off and changes. Then he’s downstairs and Jem is on the couch again, slightly more alert than she’d been before now that she hasn’t just been laying around, being hot and trying desperately to sleep.

He sits on the couch beside her and she pauses for a moment before leaning her head on his shoulder, the cold made less severe by the cloth of his t-shirt.

Jem just stays like that for a bit, getting used to the sensation, but after that there’s a muttered “Oh god I don’t even care anymore,” and she’s curled up against his side like she hasn’t been since she was very, very little. 

Kieren smiles and wraps an arm around her, and perhaps breathes a bit more than he normally would, until Jem wraps her arms around him in kind and is- 

within moments- 

finally- 

blessedly- 

asleep.


End file.
